Residential School Research Paper

Before understanding the link between Residential Schools and child welfare, it is imperative to understand the horrible memories these Aboriginal young children have. The average Aboriginal child taken away from their family was only 7 years old. You arrived at the schools being told you are no longer an Indian. Assault began the moment the child took the first step across the school’s threshold, having their clothing stripped off and all hair shaved off. Many children were crushed with loneliness from the minute they arrived, being segregated from others. Even though these were schools, the expectations were not high what so ever. Attracting good teachers was a reoccurring problem due to the fact that they had very productive days beginning at 6:45, ended at
Many of these discipline prompted children to run away, often at great risk of themselves, results as horrible as children dying while running away from being frozen or hungry. “It was awful having to watch them holding back the tears and the hurt of not being able to help – or even talk to them.” Not only did the teachers, but also other students abuse students, and then claims could not be made because it would lead to more abusing. Those who have been abused run a greater risk of abusing and have difficulty forming healthy emotional attachments. Once parents were aware of the events taking place in the Residential Schools, they began refusing to send their children. They wrote letters of complaint and sought legal justice but no results. “He sent me to hide in the woods, he told the Indian agent I wasn’t home which was true, I was hiding in a hollow stump and I waited until the plane left.” Parents hoped for on-reserve boarding school, better food, less discipline and more education, where as students looks for ways to frustrate their teachers, get more to eat and go back to their homes and